Powerade has become the official sports drink and sideline beverage of the Major League Lacrosse (MLL).

The company will receive significant branding throughout the league season and also becomes the exclusive sports drink and sideline beverage of the MLL teams, salve the MLL All-Star game and championship weekend.

The new partnership will commence with the 2011 MLL season which runs from May to August.

MLL commissioner David Gross said of the deal: “We are thrilled to be aligned with such a quality brand. Powerade is the rising brand in the sports drink category. We believe in the science of their product for MLL athletes and all lacrosse players. Major League Lacrosse is excited about collaborating with Powerade.”

CCNA vice president marketing assets, ed integrated marketing, symptoms  Sharon J. Byers added: “Lacrosse is one of the country’s fastest growing sports and MLL is the beacon of inspiration for many of the young participants. Powerade is thrilled to join forces with MLL and help hydrate its great athletes. Our team can’t wait to dig in and build around this partnership.”

In their role as the exclusive commercial partner of the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) for the annual IIHF World Championship, viagra 60mg Infront Sports & Media has signed a comprehensive media rights agreement with the television network TV4 for coverage of the 2012-2017 IIHF World Championship.

The Scandinavian broadcaster has acquired the exclusive rights for its home  of Sweden as well as for Denmark and Norway, medstore which will ensure long-term coverage of the tournament in one of the biggest ice hockey markets worldwide.

The agreement will see TV4 cover all television outlets, including terrestrial, cable, satellite, and broadband platforms, radio and internet as well as mobile rights on a FREE and/or PAY basis.

Johan Kleberg, Head of Sports Rights Acquisitions for the TV4-Group, stated: “We look forward to providing the TV4 audience with comprehensive coverage of one of the biggest sports events of the year. Furthermore we are significantly strengthening our position within ice hockey in the region. The 2012 and 2013 tournaments are of particular interest as they are co-hosted by Finland and Sweden and will attract significant levels of public interest and in-depth coverage across the whole of Scandinavia.”

Bruno Marty, Infront’s Executive Director Winter Sports, added: “This agreement between Infront and TV4 is remarkable as it ensures the long-term coverage of the IIHF World Championship in one of the world’s major ice hockey markets. The Final of the 1970 IIHF World Championship reached one of the highest TV-audience levels in Swedish broadcast history and figures have remained high ever since. This is clear proof of the popularity and unparalleled status of ice hockey in the country. We are convinced that the high-quality host broadcast production supervised by Infront will provide a base from which TV4 – over the course of the next six years – will be able to supply some of the best and most successful ice hockey programming to date.”

The official representative body for all English athletics clubs, England Athletics, has attacked the endorsement of Tottenham Hotspur’s bid for the Olympic Stadium by the Association of British Athletics Clubs (ABAC), claiming the body has “no legitimacy”.

The latter organisation has claimed that retaining a running track at the stadium, as proposed by West Ham United, would not provide a useful legacy for the sport, instead backing Spurs plans to redevelop the Crystal Palace athletics stadium.

UK Athletics, however, strongly favours West Ham’s bid, maintaining that London 2012’s promise to the International Olympic Committee to maintain athletics at the stadium should be honoured.

Chairman of England Athletics, John Graves rejected the ABAC position, adding: “ABAC have no legitimacy – they are a self appointed lobby group whose views cannot be claimed to represent athletics clubs. 

“Across Britain there are some 1,500 athletics clubs, only a few percent of whom have any association whatsoever with ABAC.”

Graves added: “The Board of England Athletics is elected by our club members and we are unanimous in our support for the need to retain the Olympic track within the Olympic stadium post 2012.

“The ability to inspire a generation of youngsters with the prospect of competing in the Olympic Stadium in England Schools Championships and in England age group championships is an incredibly powerful recruiter for our sport and it is our duty to protect that opportunity for future generations.”

John Bicourt, an ABAC officer stated: “Saying that there would be a proper athletics legacy merely by keeping the track at the Olympic Stadium is a myth.

“The true reason for those touting the legacy myth is to save face over the wholly unrealistic promises made in Singapore by the Olympic bid team.

“West Ham, should they win the bid, would almost certainly demand the right to remove the track after a few years on the basis that the stadium is barely used for athletics enough to justify keeping it.”

Tottenham have proposed to rebuild the home of British athletics at Crystal Palace and transform the Olympic Stadium into a soccer-only venue which Bicourt said the ABAC viewed as a “realistic alternative”.

In an attempt to make the sport more efficient and exciting, Formula One cars could undergo further dramatic redesigns ahead of the 2013 season.

The changes will include:

* Downsizing of the cars wings;

* Specially-designed underfloors to generate downward force differently (the underfloor of the cars will be shaped along its length to generate downforce for the first time since the 1982 season – currently cars have bottoms that are flat between the wheels);

* A major reduction in the total amount of downward force;

* The average proportion of a lap that a driver is able to spend on full throttle to be cut from 70% in 2010 to 50% in 2013;

* Tyres will remain large and chunky to ensure cornering speeds remain high.

The adaptations will make the cars slightly slower meaning passing may be easier though the general driving should be more challenging. The cars are set to use 35 per cent less fuel in a bid to promote environmentally friendly changes.

Patrick Head and Rory Byrne have produced the redesign plans which, if implemented, would highlight the biggest design changes since 1983. The draft regulations requested by the FIA will be submitted to the F1 teams this week ahead of the Technical Working Group’s (TWG) meeting in January which scopes out rule changes.

The fundamental philosophy of the changes is set to remain intact though the design heads of each team represented by the TWG will suggest any necessary changes to the proposal.

Head, director of engineering for Williams, and Byrne, a former chief designer for Ferrari, have been partly responsible for the design of 17 constructors’ title winning cars for Williams, Benetton and Ferrari.

A Brazilian prosecutor warned Felipe Massa that he could be arrested and sentenced to up to six years in prison if he takes team orders to help Ferrari teammate Fernando Alonso win the Formula One title.

Massa could be charged with fraud if he allows Alonso to pass him or if he does anything else that would somehow alter the result Sunday at in Interlagos, according to prosecutor Paulo Castilho, known for taking up sports causes in Brazil.

“Massa or any other driver who does anything to fraud the result of the race can be arrested and formally charged,” Castilho told The Associated Press on Thursday. “It doesn’t mean that it will happen, it will be up to the local authority in charge of the event to decide whether the law has been broken.”

The law mentioned by Castilho says that it’s a crime to “fraud by any means, or contribute to fraud, in any way, the result of a sporting event.”

Massa arrived at the Brazilian Grand Prix saying he would give way to his teammate if needed Sunday, just as he did while leading the German GP in July so Alonso could earn more points in the race for the title.

“I would do it again, I’m a professional driver,” Massa said earlier this week.

Rajasthan Royals, sacked IPL franchise confirmed that they have filed a legal petition against India’s national cricket governing body, BCCI’s decision to terminate their franchise agreement.

“We have tried to meet with the BCCI to understand the basis for the termination, which was recieved without notice. We do not understand what we have done wrong, and it is therefore our duty to the fans of the IPL, our employees, our players and our partners to pursue the matter. The matter is expected to be listed this Wednesday. We would not like to state anything further since the matter is sub judice,” the spokesperson said.

Rajasthan Royals, winners of the inaugural edition of the Indian Premier League (IPL), were expelled from the Twenty20 tournament last Sunday for alleged violations of rules, with seven years of their 10-year contract still to run.

The BCCI had said that Rajasthan violated the franchise agreement and there were irregularities in their ownership pattern.

But the club promoters deny this allegation. The BCCI had also terminated the contract of Kings XI Punjab for a similar reason.

The share price of sportswear manufacturer Nike has reached an all-time high of US$83.40 following the announcement of its five-year deal with the National Football League (NFL).

Nike has agreed a deal with the NFL giving them official endorsement of on-field and sideline personnel apparel as well as fan gear rights from 2012 onwards.

The company replaces Adidas-owned Reebok, ampoule which paid US$300 million for a ten-year deal that runs out next season.

President of Nike Brand Charlie Denson said of the deal: “We believe our agreement with the NFL enhances the Nike brand, and provides a significant opportunity to drive growth across the business -both in our performance products and sportswear.”

The NFL also made licensing rights deals with New Era, GIII, VF, Outerstuff and ’47 brand. Reports claim the six deals could be worth a combined US$1 billion.

PERFORM, the digital sports specialist, has appointed Matt Kelly to the new position of managing director at PERFORM publishing.

Kelly will be responsible for building new audiences and revenue streams across a number of sports from January next year.

He will join form Trinity Mirror, where he is currently digital content director of Mirror Group and was in charge of the recently launched Mirrorfootball.co.uk and 3am.co.uk.

Kelly said: “I’ve had 16 brilliant years with the Mirror and am incredibly proud of everything the digital team has achieved here – particularly Mirror Football and 3am.co.uk, but now it’s time for a fresh challenge.”

PERFORM joint-chief executive Simon Denyer added: “PERFORM now generates and accesses more sports video, editorial and data than any other media company in the world so we wanted to bring someone in with creative drive and a proven track record to take these assets and create a range of new direct-to-consumer sports channels.

“Following the resounding success of ePlayer, which is now the world’s leading premium sports VOD broadcaster with 31 million unique users a month, we have hired Matt to launch and manage other new mass audience initiatives.”